Explanation:
Fireworks came early on
July 4th
when, at 1:52am EDT, the
Deep
Impact spacecraft's probe
smashed into the surface of Comet Tempel 1's nucleus
at ten kilometers per second.
The well-targeted impactor probe was vaporized as it
blasted out an expanding cloud of material,
seen
here 13 seconds after the collision.
The image is part of a
stunning
series of frames documenting the event from the
high resolution camera onboard the
flyby
spacecraft.
Tempel 1's potato-shaped nucleus is approximately 5 kilometers
across as seen from this perspective.
Cameras onboard the
impactor
probe were also able to
image the nucleus and impact site up-close ... until
about 3 seconds before the impact.
Of course, telescopes nearer to planet Earth
followed the event,
detecting a significant brightening of
comet Tempel 1.
